Being a parent is nonstop hard work, making it challenging to stay on top of news that impacts families in Washington state. This Hits Home is your weekly hit of news, commentary, and, occasionally, opinion. Want to have a say? Look for the ‘Take action’ prompts. Here’s the update for the week of Jan. 26 to Feb. 1.
Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. (Image: Steve Morgan)
Mary Bridge Closes Gender Care Clinic
South Puget Sound trans teens seeking gender-affirming medical care have lost a medical ally: Tacoma’s MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital shut down its Gender Health Clinic last week.
A hospital spokesperson confirmed that 320 current patients receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and other medications at the clinic will need to get those medications elsewhere. More than 150 families were on the hospital’s waiting list for care at the time of the closure announcement.
In a statement, MultiCare placed the blame for the closure squarely on the shoulders of the Trump administration:
“Due to recent escalations at the federal level to eliminate medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria for minors nationwide, as well as investigations and significant penalizations of health care organizations that provide such care, MultiCare Health System has made the difficult choice to close the MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s Gender Health Clinic.
“This was an incredibly painful decision, and one that we wish that we did not have to make,” hospital officials wrote. The closure is another hit for trans youth in Puget Sound and all of Washington, where an initiative to ban trans athletes from participating in girls’ sports is likely to go to voters in November. The gender-affirming clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital continues to treat patients, despite legal pressure from the federal government. Read the full story.
SPS’s New Protocols for Handling ICE Rumors
After several South End schools were ordered to shelter-in-place earlier this month following unsubstantiated reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was in their neighborhood, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) Interim Superintendent Fred Podesta and Seattle School Board members got an earful from parents and teachers.
This week, during a special board meeting on Wednesday, district leaders announced updated guidance for school principals and other leaders on handling unverified reports.
The district has had a clear policy for more than a year on what individual school leaders should do if ICE comes on campus: they are not to provide any information about students, families, or employees, and they are not to allow agents into the building unless and until SPS legal counsel verifies the agents have a valid warrant or court order.
Under the new protocols announced last week, staff who hear of an ICE presence in their area must contact their school principal and the SPS Safety and Security Office. If that office confirms a threat, a central response team will convene to decide what action to take, if any.
At the recent board meeting, Podesta once again admitted the district had been unclear with school leaders about ICE rumor control—reiterating his comments at the Jan. 21 school board meeting, one day after the schools were locked down.
“We’d been really clear about what to do if law enforcement agencies show up on your campus,” Podesta said. “What you do when you are hearing about (immigration) enforcement in the area, we were less clear about. And so we think we need a more unified, systemic response instead of a building-by-building response.”
He also told the board that the Seattle Police Department will inform the district if it becomes aware of an ICE presence near schools. Read the new SPS protocols.
There’s No Majority Race Among Seattle’s Kids
Seattle’s population is diversifying — at least the kids are. According to the 2024 Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there is no ethnic or racial majority group representing Seattle’s 110,000 kids and youth. White kids now make up 49% of the city’s under-18 population. That’s the biggest group, according to Gene Balk, The Seattle Times FYI Guy. But it’s not a majority, and the percentage of that group is down from the year before: 53% of Seattle kids were Caucasian in 2023. Interesting counterstatistic: 58% of the city’s adult population identifies as white in the survey. Get the full scoop on this new trend from The Seattle Times.
What it’s Like When a Parent is Detained
Imagine coming home four days before Christmas, loaded with presents to wrap for your kids, and being confronted with immigration agents (ICE) as you walk into your home. Seattle mom Alejandra doesn’t have to imagine. It happened to her husband. Then imagine the compassion of a single mom and nurse who takes in a detainee’s family. Theirs is a story that both enrages and inspires and should not be missed. Find this important story on KUOW.
Take action: Have kids in grade school and up? Consider reading this story with them for a discussion about providing service to those in need, followed by a talk about what kids should and should not do if they encounter ICE agents.
Law Enforcement Mask Ban Bill
Washington lawmakers are pushing back on masked authority. A bill that would bar law enforcement officers from concealing their identities while performing public duties cleared the state Senate this week and now heads to the House.
Supporters of Substitute Senate Bill 5855 say the issue is simple: transparency builds trust, and masked officers erode it—especially in communities already fearful of immigration enforcement. Modeled after a California law passed last year, the bill would generally prohibit opaque face coverings during routine public interactions, reinforcing existing requirements that officers display identifying information. Backed by more than 14,000 Washington residents, the measure passed the Senate 30–19 and now faces its next test in the House.
Take action: Make your voice heard on matters important to you and your family. Reach out to your state legislative representatives to share your thoughts on the use of identity-obscuring face masks by law enforcement. Contact members of the Washington State House of Representatives and Washington State Senate.
Kids say it all at the 2025 Child Care for WA Advocacy Day. the 2026 rally will be Feb. 3. (Image: Child Care for WA)
Child Care Advocates Rally This Tuesday
Child care and early education programs have been on the cutting block for the past year, between the Trump administration policies and Washington State’s ongoing budget deficit crisis.
Parents, child care providers, and other advocates hope their presence in Olympia on Tuesday, Feb. 3, will help convince state lawmakers to say “no” to the proposed cuts.
Child Care for WA Advocacy Day participants will rally on the Capitol steps starting at 11 a.m. before heading out across the Capitol campus to meet with lawmakers and voice their concerns about Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed supplemental budget for the 2025–27 biennium. Under that proposal, the state would cap its Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) program at 33,000 households, potentially leaving 14,000 families who currently rely on subsidies without quality care. Right now, 34% of Washington children in licensed care depend on that support. The proposed reduction also lowers rates paid to child care centers to the 75th percentile of market rates, leaving providers struggling to cover the real cost of quality care.
Ferguson is also proposing reductions in professional development for child care staff, Home Visiting Services, and the Transition to Kindergarten program.
“The proposed cap on Working Connections and reductions to early learning and provider reimbursement rates mean that families will lose their child care. Do we really want to add barriers to families being able to work and kids being able to thrive?” day care provider Lakeda Sullivan said last week in a news release from Child Care Aware of Washington.
Child Care for WA wants to ensure the most accurate information is used to make decisions about child care costs by passing Senate Bill 5500, which codifies the Cost of Quality Care Rate Model into law. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Emily Alvarado (D-West Seattle).
Take Action: Are you concerned about cuts to state child care programs? Join the rally in Olympia on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m. While visits with lawmakers are limited to those pre-registered, the rally is open to all.
Sammamish parent Heather Grassman testifies in favor of HB 2112 in Olympia
Cutoff Looms for Bill to Keep Kids from Accessing Online Adult Content
Lawmakers in Olympia are up against their first deadline next week—Feb. 4 is the last day for bills to be voted out of committees in their house of origin if they have no fiscal impact on the state.
One bill, House Bill 2112, is among those. While it won’t cost the state anything, not passing it would be a big lost opportunity for Washington families.
The proposal, sponsored by Representative Mari Leavitt (D-University Place) and currently awaiting a vote in the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee, would require websites to verify a user is age 18 or older if one-third of the site content is sexual material harmful to minors. And it’s supported across the aisle, by Democrats and Republicans.
During a public hearing earlier this month, it was easy to see why, starting with the first testimony from Heather Grassman, a Sammamish mother of twins whose family epitomized the worst outcome of kids’ access to internet porn and other “dark web” content.
“On Jan. 15, 2025, at 8:30 a.m., my beloved son Reilly, 17 years old…ended his life after experiencing a deep depression directly related to the time he spent in the dark places of the internet that we could not protect him from,” Grassman told lawmakers. “After he died, we found messages on his cell phone in his own words about how it contributed to his depression.”
Grassman said that its passage is “essential” because parents are “out-matched” by the companies generating sexually explicit content.
Opposition to HB 2112 came from some surprising quarters: the ACLU, the Northwest Progressive Institute, and LGBTQ advocates spoke out against it. Such groups cited privacy as a major concern. Although TechNet, the technology industry trade association, does not broadly support age verification, TechNet is not opposing HB 2112.
Opposition to the bill did, however, come from some surprising quarters: the ACLU, the Northwest Progressive Institute, and LGBTQ advocates spoke out against it. Such groups cited privacy as a major concern.
Free Speech Coalition and Representatives from the adult industry also opposed, some stressing that passage of such laws would dramatically reduce traffic at compliant sites, meaning users (adults and children) would simply move to non-compliant sites hosted in other countries.
does not broadly support age verification, TechNet is not opposing HB 2112.
As of Jan. 30, the bill remains in committee, with no executive session scheduled, during which it could be voted out of committee. Read the full story and view testimony on Seattleschild.com.
Take action: Do you have an opinion on HB 2112? No matter how you feel, your voice matters. Contact members of the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee and your Washington State Senate representative.
Safe Gun Storage and Protecting Kids from Online Platforms Bills
Gun regulation advocates are getting a little anxious about House Bill 1152, which outlines storage requirements in vehicles and homes, as well as expanding public education opportunities for those who decide to carry. The bill needs to move out of committee this week to have a chance at passage.
“As you’re probably aware, one of the most direct and effective ways we can reduce preventable accidents in our homes and vehicles is through safe storage. Right now, our state lawmakers have a very clear opportunity to act by passing safe storage legislation,” Mike McIntyre, director of Government Affairs for the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, wrote alliance members this week. “This bill is currently sitting in House Rules, which means leadership needs to pull it forward for a vote. With the House Origin cutoff quickly approaching, the window to move this bill is becoming slimmer by the day.”
The bill has been passed out of committee and referred to the House Rules Committee.
On other fronts, Children’s Alliance, the statewide child welfare advocacy group, called on parents last week to help move House Bill 1834, a proposal to ensure companies operating social media and other online platforms stop targeting kids with addictive feeds and invasive push notifications, forward. The bill has been opposed by tech companies. HB 1834 has been scheduled for an executive session and an expected vote in the
Take action: No matter where you stand on the issue of safe storage or other gun control measures or online protections for kids, your voice makes a difference. Contact members of the Washington State House of Representatives regarding safe storage legislation nd members of the House Appropriations Committee regarding online protections.
Crosslake Connection light rail (Image: Sound Transit)
Seattle-Bellevue Sound Transit Link Opens in March
It’s called the Crosslake Connection—and also the last link in Sound Transit’s 2 Line running from Lynnwood to Redmond. And, according to a Sound Transit release, the new line will cross Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge starting March 28, making it fast and easy to get from Seattle to the Eastside without driving.
It’s been a long time coming said Claudia Balducci, a King County councilmember and Sound Transit board member, in the release:
“There was fierce opposition to the very idea of rail in East King County, a failed ballot measure, local political challenges, court cases, design and construction challenges, a world-wide pandemic, a concrete delivery strike, multiple financial cycles with major cost impacts, and maybe the biggest challenge of all — engineering and constructing a fixed rail system on a floating bridge for the first time in world history.”
The 2 Line will connect with the 1 Line at the International District/Chinatown Station to cross the floating bridge.
Once service opens, 2 Line trains will cross the lake every eight minutes during peak times and every 10-15 minutes the rest of the day. Service will run on both the 1 and 2 Lines from around 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and 6 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.
How is Your Family Handling Job Loss/Worry about Job Loss?
In the past six months, the greater Seattle job market has seen a string of layoffs at some of the region’s biggest employers, raising concern among families and local businesses alike. Seattle-based Amazon has been at the center of the trend: the company announced a massive corporate downsizing in late 2025, cutting about 14,000 jobs worldwide (approximately 2,300 in Seattle and Bellevue), followed by a second wave of 16,000 layoffs announced last week. That brings the total headcount to roughly 30,000 over the past year. Amazon hasn’t yet disclosed how many local employees will lose their jobs as part of its latest round of layoffs.
Also, in mid-January, tech giant Meta reported cuts affecting 331 employees across Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, and remote Washington roles as part of a broader workforce reduction. Travel-tech employer Expedia Group also announced layoffs in January, cutting about a fifth of its local product workforce.
These corporate layoffs come amid broader labor shifts in the region. Fred Meyer eliminated 201 positions, and State Employment Security Department data confirms that the economic slowdown has affected the hospitality and retail sectors, with thousands more positions cut statewide in the past year. At the same time, health care workers have taken a hit: Seattle Children’s Hospital, Providence Health & Services, Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, and other medical centers have announced layoffs in the last 12 months.
We want to know: Has your family been impacted by job loss this year? I’d love to know how you are navigating that change as a family. Reach out to Cheryl@seattleschild.com.
